2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Cal took over the lead in the team standings on Day 3 after winning the 400 medley relay with a pool record time of 3:00.36. With very little margin to make mistakes as they try to dethrone defending champions Texas, the Golden Bears were extremely cautious with their relay starts. After Destin Lasco’s lead off (44.64), Reece Whitley (50.64), Trenton Julian (44.44), and Bjorn Seeliger (40.64) had reaction time of .39, .27, and .31, respectively, by far the most conservative in the field. Cal used Whitley on the relay instead of Liam Bell, who had placed third in the 100 breast final tonight (50.50), one spot ahead of Whitley (50.84).
The most eye-popping split of the night was the leadoff backstroke from Luca Urlando, whose 43.35 broke Ryan Murphy’s NCAA, meet, American, U.S. Open, and pool records.
The second-fastest backstroke leadoff belonged to Kacper Stokowski of NC State (44.33), who was .29 off the time he swam to win the individual event earlier in the session. Also leading off with sub-44.5s were Florida’s Adam Chaney (44.43) and Indiana’s Brendan Burns (44.45), who had finished third and second, respectively, in the 100 back individual final.
Caspar Corbeau of Texas led the breaststrokers with 50.10 from a rolling start, which was the fastest by more than half a second. Cal’s Reece Whitley and USC’s Trent Pellini both split 50.64s, while Evgenii Somov of Louisville (50.81), Josh Matheny of Indiana (50.93), and Ron Polonsky of Stanford (50.98) were also under 51 seconds.
Andrei Minakov, who won the 100 fly final with a pool-record time of 43.71, went 43.58 on Stanford’s relay for the fastest butterfly split of the night. NC State’s Nyls Korstanje, fourth in the 100 fly final, went 43.88 as the only other sub-44 flyer. Tomer Frankel went 44.19 for Indiana. There were three more sub-44.5s: Dalton Lowe of Louisville (44.38), Florida’s Eric Friese (44.41), and Cal’s Trenton Julian (44.44).
Texas fifth-year Alvin Jiang, whom the Longhorns had used for the fly leg on the 2021 NCAA-champion 400 medley relay, did not swim with this year’s quartet. He swam the 100 back/100 fly double in prelims and made finals in both, but scratched the fly (he placed 13th in prelims with 45.00) and it was presumed that it was to rest up for the relay. Instead, Texas used Zac Van Zandt (44.79). It was probably the right move, as Jiang tied for 15th place in the fly final with 45.64, but it makes one wonder what real benefit Texas picked up from scratching Jiang.
(One other note about the fly splits: Missouri’s relay was disqualified for an early start from flyer Danny Kovac which, to anyone watching, was quite clear.)
With 40.52, Tennessee freshman Jordan Crooks was the fastest of the five swimmers who swam sub-41 100 free anchors. Bjorn Seeliger went 40.64 on the end of Cal’s relay to assure their win. Virginia’s Matt King (40.90), Florida’s Kieran Smith (40.96), and Arizona State’s Leon Marchand (40.98) were the three others.
400 Medley Relay Splits
Rank
School
Swimmer
Backstroke Split
1
Georgia
Luca Urlando
43.35
2
NC State
Kacper Stokowski
44.33
3
Florida
Adam Chaney
44.43
4
Indiana
Brendan Burns
44.45
5
Harvard
Dean Farris
44.59
6
Cal
Destin Lasco
44.64
7
Ohio State
Hunter Armstrong
44.74
8
Texas
Cameron Auchinachie
45.00
9
Utah
Andrei Ungur
45.05
10
Stanford
Leon MacAlister
45.10
11
Alabama
Matthew Menke
45.12
12
Louisville
Nicolas Albiero
45.26
13
Arizona State
Jack Dolan
45.49
14
Wisconsin
Wes Jekel
45.52
15
Missouri (DQ)
Jack Dahlgren
45.66
16
Virginia Tech
Forest Webb
45.80
17
Auburn
Nate Stoffle
45.91
17
Florida State
Mason Herbet
45.91
19
Tennessee
Bjoern Kammann
45.93
20
Virginia
Jack Aikins
46.13
21
Georgia Tech
Berke Saka
46.21
22
Notre Dame
Kaden Smesko
46.27
23
Texas A&M
Ethan Gogulski
46.47
24
Penn State
Lachlan Byrne
46.49
25
USC
Vaggelis Makrygiannis
46.78
26
UNC
Noah Rutberg
46.83
27
Michigan
Jared Daigle
46.97
28
Northwestern
Manuel Martos
47.09
29
Purdue
Nikola Acin
47.29
Rank
School
Swimmer
Breaststroke Split
1
Texas
Caspar Corbeau
50.10
2
Cal
Reece Whitley
50.64
2
USC
Trent Pellini
50.64
4
Louisville
Evgenii Somov
50.81
5
Indiana
Josh Matheny
50.93
6
Stanford
Ron Polonsky
50.98
7
Alabama
Derek Maas
51.05
8
Florida
Dillon Hillis
51.20
9
Northwestern
Kevin Houseman
51.30
10
Auburn
Reid Mikuta
51.34
11
Georgia Tech
Caio Pumputis
51.41
12
Harvard
Jared Simpson
51.42
13
Missouri (DQ)
Ben Patton
51.51
14
Arizona State
John Heaphy
51.54
15
Wisconsin
Will Myhre
51.71
16
UNC
Jacob Rauch
51.75
17
Texas A&M
Andres Puente
51.79
18
NC State
Rafal Kusto
51.81
19
Virginia
Noah Nichols
51.84
20
Michigan
Will Chan
51.85
21
Tennessee
Jarel Dillard
51.87
22
Penn State
Daniel Raisanen
51.93
23
Virginia Tech
AJ Pouch
51.98
24
Utah
Jaek Horner
52.08
25
Ohio State
Hudson McDaniel
52.16
26
Georgia
Harrison Wayner
52.38
27
Purdue
Nicholas Sherman
52.62
28
Notre Dame
Josh Bottelberghe
52.69
29
Florida State
Izaak Bastian
53.38
Rank
Team
Swimmer
Butterfly Split
1
Stanford
Andrei Minakov
43.58
2
NC State
Nyls Korstanje
43.88
3
Indiana
Tomer Frankel
44.19
4
Louisville
Dalton Lowe
44.38
5
Florida
Eric Friese
44.41
6
Cal
Trenton Julian
44.44
7
Missouri (DQ)
Danny Kovac
44.61
8
Texas
Zac Van Zandt
44.79
9
Arizona State
Cody Bybee
44.80
10
Georgia Tech
Christian Ferraro
44.97
11
Purdue
Braden Samuels
45.06
12
Ohio State
Alex Quach
45.08
13
Auburn
Aidan Stoffle
45.15
14
Alabama
Tyler Sesvold
45.28
14
Penn State
Victor Baganha
45.28
16
USC
Alexei Sancov
45.35
16
Michigan
Gal Cohen Groumi
45.35
18
Notre Dame
Cason Wilburn
45.36
19
Virginia Tech
Antani Ivanov
45.41
20
Harvard
Umitcan Gures
45.47
21
Virginia
Josh Fong
45.52
22
Northwestern
Federico Burdisso
45.65
23
UNC
Boyd Poelke
45.66
24
Texas A&M
Jace Brown
45.67
25
Tennessee
Kayky Mota
45.69
26
Wisconsin
Constantin Bensch
45.74
27
Florida State
Max McCuster
45.90
28
Utah
Ben Waterman
46.19
29
Georgia
Matthew Sates
46.39
Rank
Team
Swimmer
Freestyle Split
1
Tennessee
Jordan Crooks
40.52
2
Cal
Bjorn Seeliger
40.64
3
Virginia
Matt King
40.90
4
Florida
Kieran Smith
40.96
5
Arizona State
Leon Marchand
40.98
6
Indiana
Rafael Miroslaw
41.19
7
Ohio State
Ruslan Gaziev
41.25
8
Texas
Danny Krueger
41.33
9
NC State
Noah Henderson
41.51
10
Louisville
Murilo Sartori
41.58
11
Notre Dame
Chris Guiliano
41.61
12
Alabama
Jonathan Berneburg
41.68
13
Harvard
Mahlon Reihman
41.76
14
Texas A&M
Koko Bratanov
41.77
15
USC
Nikola Miljenic
41.79
16
Georgia
Dillon Downing
41.80
17
Michigan
Bence Szabados
41.81
18
Virginia Tech
Youssef Ramadan
41.99
19
Stanford
Jonny Affeld
42.04
20
UNC
Tomas Sungalia
42.27
21
Florida State
Peter Varjasi
42.44
22
Northwestern
Andrew Zhang
42.46
23
Auburn
Logan Tirheimer
42.50
24
Utah
Finn O’Haimhirgin
42.52
25
Georgia Tech
Baturalp Unlu
42.64
26
Penn State
William Roberson
42.70
27
Missouri (DQ)
Grant Bochenski
42.88
28
Purdue
Keelan Hart
43.09
29
Wisconsin
Jake Newmark
43.47
Team Rankings Through Day 3
California – 320.5
Texas – 313
Florida – 272
NC State – 214
Indiana – 183
Arizona St – 167
Stanford – 159
Georgia – 150
(tie) Louisville / Ohio St – 108
–
Virginia Tech – 89.5
Alabama – 80
Virginia – 77.5
Harvard – 76
LSU – 65
Arizona – 61
(tie) Purdue / Texas A&M – 42
–
Tennessee 40.5
Michigan 34
Columbia 30
Minnesota 27
(tie) UNC / Southern California – 24
–
Auburn 22
Missouri 7
Princeton 7
(tie) Northwestern / Penn – 6.5
–
Notre Dame 5
(tie) SMU / Georgia Tech / Towson / Wisconsin – 4
–
–
–
Utah 2